Sunday, August 29, 2010

Sebuah Cerita Tentang Ibu Bapa dan Anaknya

Dua cerita berikut saya perolehi dari email sahabat. Ia terpilih untuk terbitan di blog ini atas criteria mesej dan pengajaran yang berkulaiti tinggi.

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Cerita 1: Ibu Bapa bukan Liabiliti...cerita benar seorang penulis berjaya

Entahlah apa yang selalu bermain pada fikiran ayah. Apabila saya ingin pulang kembali ke kota, dia kerap minta duit. Seakan-akan mendesak....

" Ada duit? Minta ayah sedikit.."

Saya masih ingat waktu itu kehidupan saya terlalu sukar. Untuk mendapat seratus ringgit di dalam poket pada satu-satu masa pun payah. Kalau balik kampung selalunya duit yang ada hanya cukup-cukup tambang. Mujurlah, isteri dan anak-anak saya sudah faham. Alhamdulilah mereka 'sporting' dan tidak banyak meragam.


"Emak, ayah asyik minta duit. Bukan tak mahu bagi, tapi saya memang tak ada duit," Bisik saya kepada emak. Emak seperti biasa, berwajah selamba, sukar ditembak reaksinya.

" Bagilah beberapa yang ada," cadang emak pendek. "Takkan 5 ringgit?"

Emak mengganguk. Saya rasa bersalah untuk memberi ayah wang sebanyak itu. Apalah yang boleh dibeli dengan wang 5 ringgit....Tapi kerana tidak mahu menghampakan harapa ayah dan ikutkan cadangan emak, saya gagahi juga memberinya.

Ayah selalunya tersenyum menerima pemberian saya. Tetapi yang mengejutkan ialah apabila kami sekeluarga berada dalam perut bas dalam perjalanan pulang ke kota. Di kocek anak saya sudah terselit wang sepuluh ringgit. Siapa yang bagi kalau bukan ayah? 10 tolak 5, saya masih 'untung' 5 ringgit. Geli hati mengenangkannya.

Begitulah selalunya tahun demi tahun. Apabila kami pulang ziarah ke kampung, saya akan memberi pemintaan ayah. Kengkadang terlupa, tetapi ayah akan selalu mengigatkan. Akhirnya, saya memang sediakan peruntukan khas untuk diberikan kepada ayah setiap kali pulang kampung. Kedudukan ekonomi saya yang masih goyah kekadang hanya mengizinkan wang dua ringgit untuk diberikan kepada ayah. Ironinya, ayah tetap dengan pemintaannya dan tetap tersenyum apabila menerima. Tidak kira berapa jumlahnya. Emak terus-terusan selamba. Saya masih sukar menandingi ketajaman rasa seorang isteri (emak) dalam memahami hati suaminya (ayah).

Begitupun setiap kali dalam perjalanan pulang, kocek anak saya akan jadi sasaran. Kekadang itulah duit pelengkap membeli tiket pulang. Ayah akan setiap memasukkan duit yang melebihi jumlah saya berikan kepadanya. Saya tidak mengambil masa lama untuk memahami apa maksud tersirat disebalik perlakuan ayah itu. Dia meminta wang pada saya bukan kerana 'tidak ada', tetapi dia ada sesuatu yang lebih besar ingin dicapainya atau disampaikannya.

Namun, secara bertahap-tahap buku tulisan saya semakin mendapat sambutan. Bukan itu sahaja, perniagaan yang saya mulakan secara kecil-kecilan semakin membesar. Kalau dulu kami pulang ke kampung dengan bas, tetapi selepas beberapa tahun saya pulang dengan kereta milik sendiri. Saya masih ingat komen ayah ketika saya pulang dengan kereta kecil Kancil milik kami sendiri.

"Nanti, besarlah kereta kamu ini...." ujur ayah senyum.

Apapun saya tetap memenuhi permintaan ayah setiap kali pulang ke kampung. Wang saya dahulukan kepadanya. Dan ayah juga konsisten dengan sikapnya, ada sahaja wang yang diselitkan dalam kocek anak saya.

" Eh tak payahlah ayah..." sekarang saya mula berani bersuara. Ekonomi keluarga sudah agak stabil. Malu rasanya mengambil duit ayah walaupun perantaraan pemberian datuk kepada cucunya. Saya tahu dan sedar, hakikatnya ayah hendak memberi kepada saya sejak dulu, tetapi sengaja atau tidak ingin saya merasa segan, duit diberi melalui anak.

"Kenapa, dah kaya?" usik ayah. Hendak tak hendak, duit dikocek anak tetap diselitkannya. Cuma sekarang bezanya, duit  itu tidak lagi 'dikebas' oleh saya. Dan dalam hati, saya mula berasa senang kerana jumlah yang saya berikan kepada ayah, kini sudah melebihi apa yang mampu diselitkan ke kocek anak saya. Tidak semacam dulu lagi, duit pemberian ayah kepada anak saya sentiasa melebihi duit pemberian saya kepadanya.

Masin sungguh mulut ayah. Tidak sampai tiga tahun, kami bertukar kereta!. Di samping menulis, saya menjadi penerbit. Perniagaan semakin rancak. Oleh sebab bilangan anak bertambah dan keperluan kerja yang meningkat saya sudah membeli MPV utuk kegunaan harian. Anak-anak mula menjejak menara gading. Kehidupan semakin laju dan aktiviti semakin rancak. Namun sibuk sekalipun saya tetap pulang menziarahi ayah dan ibu. Anehnya ayah tetap memberi kepada anak saya walaupun kini saya telah dikenali sebagai korporat yang berjaya.

Rupa-rupanya, ayah memberi bukan kerana kekurangan atau kelebihan kami, tetapi dia MEMBERI KERANA ALLAH. Mencontohi Allah al-Wahhab itu!

Anda ingin tah apa pesan penulis itu kepada saya? Ya, mari kongsi bersama :

"
Kini aku benar-benar faham bahawa ibu ayah yang tua bukan beban dalam kehidupan di dunia, lebih-lebih lagi dalam kehidupan di akhirat. Mereka bukan 'liabiliti' tetapi sebenarnya aset untuk kita (walaupun istilah itu sebenarnya kurang atau tidak tepat kerana ibubapa bukan benda). Rugi betul siapa yang mempunyai ibu bapa yang telah tua tetapi mengabaikannya.

"memberi kepada ibu bapa hakikatnya memberi kepada diri sendiri. Walaupun itu bukan niat kita ketika memberi, tetapi percayalah rezeki berganda akan pulang kepada kita semula. DOA MEREKA MUSTAJAB. Harapan mereka kenyataan.  Kasih mereka bekalan. Benarlah sepertimana sabda Rasulullah s.a.w, keredhaan Allah terletak kepada keredhaan ibu bapa."


Baiklah, inilah sebenarnya rahsia 'perniagaan' yang jarang-jarang diperkatakan oleh tokoh korporat. Juga tidak pernah ditulis dalam mana-mana buku perniagaan. Masih punya ibubapa? MEMBERILAH KEPADA MEREKA. Tidak ada?


Tidak mengapa, memberilah kepada anak-anak anda. Tidak ada juga?  Memberilah kepada sesiapa sahaja. Kita sentiasa berfikir untuk memberi. Memberi kepada orang lain bererti memberi kepada diri kita sendiri walaupun itu bukan maksud kita ketika mula memberi!
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Cerita 2: Kisah Dr Harun Din dan adik beradik beliau di hari kematian ibunda tercinta

Sahabat sekelian,
 
Cerita dibawah menjadi IBRAH bagi kita semua.
 
Apa yang paling utama dalam memberikan khidmat terakhir kpd ibu ayah ialah MEMANDIKAN JENAZAHNYA, MENGKAPANKAN TUBUH MULIANYA, MENYEMBAHYANGKAN JENAZAH NYA DAN MENGKEBUMIKAN JENAZAHNYA. Lakukan dengan tangan2 kita sebagai anak2. Lakukan sahabat, lakukannya jika ditakdirkan ibu ayah kita meninggal dunia.
 
Saya menangis apabila ada sahabat saya menceritakan bagaimana ibu kepada Tuan Guru Dr Harun Din meninggal dunia. Bacalah sahabat pengalaman Dr Harun  Din dan keluarganya.
 
Jiran kpd ibu Dr Harun Din (DrHD) menziarah ibunya pada waktu petang selepas asar. beliau memberi salam tetapi tak menyahut salamnya. Beberapa kali salam diberikan tapi tak ada jawapan. Maka jirannya itu mencari ruang mencari ibu DrHD, akhirnya terlihat ibunya sedang sujud dalam solat. lalu jiran ini balik ke rumah dahulu. beberapa minit kemudian, datang semula berjumpa ibu DRHD, dilihatnya masih sujud. firasat jirannya, ini ada yang tak kena. Lalu masuk ke rumah utk melihat dr dekat ibu DrHD. Rupa2nya, ibu DrHD telah kembali ke rahmatullah dalam masa ibunya sujud menghadap Allah. Ya Allah mulianya kematian ibu DrHD.
 
Perkara yg paling comel yg dilakukan keluarga DrHD ialah, menyempurnakan dgn tangan2 anak2 jenazah ibunya. Mandikan ibu, kapan ibu, sembahyangkan ibu dan kebumikan tanpa diusik orang lain ke atas tubuh ibunya. Ada jiran2 yg ingin melakukannya tetapi ditolak oelh Dr Harun Din, hasan Din dan Ishak Din dengan hujjah, "BERILAH SAYA SEKELUARGA PELUANG MEMBUAT KHIDMAT YG TERAKHIR UTK IBU". Ketika huja itu diberikan, seluruh masyarakat yg hadir melinangkan air mata kerana tawaaduk dan alimnya anak2 ibu itu. Paling menyayatkan hati masyarakat adalah apabila ketiga2 adik beradik ini iaitu Harun Din, Hasan Din dan Ishak Din turun sendiri ke lubang lahad mengebumikan jenazah ibunya. Ada beberapa orang yg hadir, memohon dan berkata,"Wahai Tuan Guru, biarlah kami buat semuanya ini menurunkan jenazah ibu Tuan Guru." Permintaan ini ditolak oleh DrHD dgn hujah yg sama "Berilah kami adik beradik peluang mengebumikan jenazah ibu ini kali terakhir". Seluruh yg hadir di kuburan ketika itu, mencurahkan airmata tawadduk di atas akhlak anak2 ibu yang diasuh hingga se"alim" sedemikian. Peristiwa ini disempurnakan hingga selesai.
 HEBAT IBU ini membina akhlak dan keilmuan anak-anak mereka, maka tidak hairanlah kita semua  bahawa DrHD , hasan Din dan Ishak Din memang disegani oelh kawan dan lawan di Bumi Malaysia ini kerana "AKHLAK"nya yang mulia dan ALIM nya mereka. 

 Terus terang sahabat, ketika saya mendengar cerita ini, air mata saya melinang apabila tergambar ketika saya dan 11 orang adik beradik menguruskan jenazah ibu bersama Feb 2009 yang lalu. Ya Allah, rahmatilah ibu kami semua. Rahmatilah mereka dan Ampunkanlah kami. 

Wallahu A'lam. 

Don't worry, there won't be peace

By Alon Liel

About two weeks before the Israel Navy's confrontation with the Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla, a radio interviewer asked me how the matter would be dealt with. "The more force we need to use, the greater our loss will be," I replied.

I feel the same on the eve of the talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The more force we exert in the negotiations in Washington, the greater our failure will be. It's supposed to be good that direct talks are beginning. The problem is that they will not result in peace. It's not because we don't need peace. Without peace with the Palestinians, we're just about hopeless. But it won't come.

Achieving peace requires an entirely different approach by the Israeli leadership. The Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman can't shake the sense that it is going to fight over peace with Abbas - a war over territory in the West Bank, a war over Jerusalem, a war over the Palestinian refugees. If we don't entirely change this approach by making a complete political and diplomatic U-turn, the talks will fail.

If the intent is to begin a struggle with the Palestinians in the presence of the Americans and the world, it will be a waste of everyone's time. In such a case it's clear to everyone that we will "win." Who is Abbas compared to us? Where are his fighter jets? Where are his submarines? Where is his Dimona nuclear facility? Where is his elite special operations force? Where are his connections in the U.S. Congress? And if he really gets us mad, we can always stop transferring him funds altogether.

It's not possible for the strongest kid and the weakest kid in the neighborhood to conduct talks on reconciliation and friendship when the talks are based on arm wrestling. It's absolutely clear who will win. But there will be no peace or reconciliation after the strong one beats the weak. It's like the case of the Turkish flotilla. The so-called victor in the tussle is the main loser.

Nonetheless, Netanyahu is our only hope at the moment. He has positioned himself before the Israeli public as the country's No. 1 patriot. He has no real rival in the political sphere. Israel is thriving economically, in large part thanks to him. He is capable of leading Israel to peace, but not with the fighting spirit he is bringing to Washington. Going into peace talks in a warlike mood presents greater risks than opportunities. The failure of the talks could turn the West Bank into another Gaza Strip and Abbas into Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas - and that's without mentioning the international implications.

We have to talk in Washington rather than threaten, to plan (together ) rather than manipulate things, to convince and be convinced, all with the knowledge that we have no alternative to this process. We have a lot more to lose from the talks' failure than the Palestinians do. At worst, they are liable to remain without a state of their own, but we are liable to lose the one we have. We won't physically lose it, but its identity will be lost along with its mission as the state of the Jewish people.

Mr. Prime Minister, only one person in the world can fail in these talks, and his name is Benjamin Netanyahu. If there is success, you will have to share the Nobel Peace Prize with Abbas and special U.S. envoy George Mitchell. If there is failure, it will be yours alone. And your failure, Mr. Prime Minister, will not be our failure, it will be our disaster. Because, for the time being, I don't see the U-turn that is needed, I don't believe there will be peace. Get ready for the commission of inquiry.
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The writer was director general of the Foreign Ministry during Ehud Barak's term as prime minister.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Everything should be taught : An academic institution does not belong to the state, but to all of mankind

By Menachem Mautner*, 19 August 2010,Haaretz

The Institute for Zionist Strategies sent a position paper to the heads of Israel's universities that examines the degree to which campus activity is Zionist in orientation. Allow me to propose a response.
Your position paper is based on an underlying assumption that is unacceptable to me, one which posits that the level of support for Zionism is the standard by which to judge a university. The university does not belong to the state, nor does it belong to the Zionist movement that created the state. It belongs to mankind, and it pursues three primary goals: generating academic knowledge that is likely to provide human beings with intellectual enrichment and a better understanding of the human condition; preserving the academic knowledge of the past; and disseminating knowledge to mankind.

The university is an institution that the liberal state must fund without taking any interest in the content of the research it produces or the material it teaches, even if this content is unsavory in the eyes of the state's leaders or even contradicts the foundations on which the state was established. The only criterion by which content should be judged in a university is the humanist one - namely, whether the content is intended to advance the welfare of mankind.

Allow me to discuss the content produced by universities - a question more difficult than another often raised in this context, that of the opinions faculty members express as citizens.
In a university, it is permissible to write, and even to teach, that in the 19th century, the Jewish people had better options than establishing a national movement that aspired to political sovereignty; that at the present moment in history, Israel needs to bring an end to the Zionist worldview that lies at the foundation of its existence; that the founding of Israel dealt a harsh blow to Arab inhabitants of the Land of Israel; that Israel needs to cease viewing itself as a Jewish and democratic state and begin characterizing itself as a state of all its citizens; that Israel needs to be a binational state; or that Israel needs to be incorporated into a Middle Eastern federation.
It is permissible to write and teach all these things, on condition that these ideas are founded upon concern for the welfare of Israel's citizens and their spiritual enrichment; and on condition that they meet the standards of the university's relevant research paradigms.
Content that does not meet the humanist criterion has no place in a university. Material that does not meet the standards of the relevant academic paradigms also has no place in a university, but that is because it constitutes shoddy academic work. Universities have institutions that are tasked with ensuring that academic work complies with the relevant academic paradigms and is done at an appropriate academic level.
Based on your mode of thinking, it would be possible to demand that the university teach only material that serves the immediate and practical interests of the state. Such an approach would place departments like business management, law, engineering and medicine at the center of the university. Such an approach would turn the university into a technical school.
Yet the university should give pride of place to the humanities, social science and natural science, fields where knowledge is sought for its own sake, without any considerations of how that knowledge might be put to immediate use. And once this material is produced by a university, it is no longer available solely to the citizens of Israel, but to all human beings the world over.
At the basis of your position paper lies the assumption that the State of Israel has one task: the exercise of political sovereignty and the nurturing of national culture. I disagree. The state is a tool for advancing a diverse set of human interests.
Aside from a national culture, human beings also need effective health services, quality education, housing, art and culture. Thus Israel does not only need to be a Zionist state; it must be a state that works to promote all the different types of well-being its citizens need. The production and dissemination of enriching academic knowledge is one of them.
You must cease judging the universities by the criteria of Zionism. The question of what specific content should be infused into Zionism today is an important one. I suggest that you focus on that instead.


* he is a professor of law at Tel Aviv University